Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
Cook County held a public hearing on the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget on October 15, 2026, chaired by Financial Chairman Daly. The meeting was dedicated entirely to public testimony, with over twenty speakers representing community organizations, advocacy coalitions, and municipal partners offering support for various county programs and requesting specific funding allocations. All members of the board were present.
One second, control room is with us. Yes, thank you. Yes, Chairman, at your recess meeting, you had all members of the board on the attendance role. Um, so all are present. I do want to announce the interpreters that we have with us connected virtually is Lori Irwin, American Sign Language and Wendy Tone Crawford, American Sign Language. In the room in person, we have Nahomie, uh, Feliciano, and she is wave your hand. She is available for anyone who needs in-person interpretation. Let me remind you of our rules for public speaking. Persons authorized to provide public testimony, shall not use vulgar, abusive, discriminatory, profane, or otherwise inappropriate language when addressing the body. Failure to act appropriately or failure to adhere to the time requirements may result in expulsion from the meeting and or disqualify the person from providing future testimony. Chairman, we have in-person as well as virtual participants for this meeting. I'm gonna call you in a group. Once your name is called, please come over to the public speaking mic uh over by the sheriff, and you can line up there. Pastor Fenia Buford Bear. Uh-huh. Why don't you come on over? Robert Arcialo, Frank Gutrerais, Jose Luis Torres, then Crystal Cavito. If you're in the room, come over by the public speaking mic and whatever order you line up, please announce your name and you may begin speaking. Go ahead, begin, Pastor. All right. Good evening. Good evening. Financial Chairman Daly and members of Cook County Commissioners. I am the Reverend Fanya Burford Berry, Director of the Westside Heroine Opioid Task Force. And I'm here to support the fiscal year 2027 budget for Cook County Health. I want to specifically highlight and thank Cook County Health's Office of Behavioral Health for inviting me to share our Courageous Conversation Initiative and other community success stories. Our task force reduces opioid overdoses through street outreach, harm reduction, and connections to treatment and report and recovery support. We meet people where they are, including on the corners where drugs are used. And so each month we bring out residents, people with lived experience, providers, and public sector partners together to develop community-based solutions. Through our partnership with Cook County Health and its Office of Behavioral Health and the Cook County government, we created Creators Conversation. Wisdom circles for black men navigating active substance use and recovery. Black men, particularly those above the age of 35, face stigma, trauma, and mistrust of systems. We listen to them without judgment and treat them as partners whose experience helps shape our cultural response to services. For Courageous Conversations Project, we engaged 260 black men and conducted eight wisdom circles and completed 90 outreach recruitment activities across Austin, East and West Garfield Park, North Darundale, and Humboldt Park. Three facilitators with lived experience led the five-week cohorts and participants explored topics such as masculinity, racism, trauma, grief, and emotional health, harm reduction, relationships, and asking for help. One powerful message emerged was from the participants update your mind box. That means making room to express emotion and seeking help and supporting other men. At our September General Task Force meeting at the Sankofa Wellness Center, one participant uh shared that the grief session helped him to discuss things he never shared before. His testimony reminded us that vulnerability is not a weakness, recovery is not shameful, and no man or person should struggle alone. Arca County Health Partnership also includes a collaboration with Miloxon on the CTA vending machine projects. In addition, Cook County Health Outreach Staffice always attends our community events. They table, provide information. Most recently, they participated in our International Overdose Awareness Day event at Lake and Pulaski. 30 seconds on August 28th.